FORMER Australia opener Justin Langer has heaped praise on Yorkshire’s young leg-spinner Adil Rashid, stating in no uncertain terms that he should be named in England’s Ashes squad.

“I think he’s excellent,” he said. “If I was a selector I’d pick him.”

Langer, the 38 year-old Somerset captain, knows a thing or two about what makes a good leggie, having played with the great Shane Warne for nearly 15 years in an Australian team that dominated world cricket.

“Leg-spinners tend to be match-winning bowlers,” he said. “He’s a gun fielder and he can bat. Australia won’t have seen much of him.”

Langer has good reason to think that Rashid could provide a pivotal element of surprise after the batsman, who notched 23 Test hundreds in a glittering international career, was dismissed by him for 55 at Scarborough last year.

“The first ball that I faced I think I tried to hit him back to Leeds and hit it straight up in the air,” he joked. “I have seen a bit of him, he’s got such a natural bowling action and he’s a massive player for the future.”

Rashid joined England for their winter tour of the West Indies and was part of the squad for the World Twenty20.

But he is yet to make his Test bow and may find himself behind off-spinner Graeme Swann and leftarmer Monty Panesar when the Ashes party is announced.

“It’d be a more impressive option to go for Rashid,” said Langer.

“Personally I don’t think the England selectors will pick him. In a way it’s a more conservative option to go with the finger spinners.”

Langer was a prominent figure in Australia’s Ashes party of 2005 and played his last Test in the fifth and final contest at Sydney as they won back the little urn in 2007.

Warne was another to bring his legendary international career to a head on that day and the most prolific leg-spinner of all time has long been a fan of 21-yearold Rashid.

“He possesses all the little tricks and toys a good wrist spinner needs,” said Warne back in 2007.

“And he can bat as well as field pretty well.”

Warne’s former coach Terry Jenner has now worked with Rashid for seven years and said recently that provided everyone remains patient he’ll have a terrific future on the international stage.

A crucial decision in England’s Ashes winning campaign of 2005 was sacrificing the experience of Graham Thorpe to give Kevin Pietersen his Test debut.

Perhaps history will repeat itself this summer and a young debutant will take cricket’s most nail-biting contest by storm.

Rashid is certainly not short of high profile admirers, but it remains to be seen if the England selectors are bold enough to go for youthful wrist spin or more experienced finger spinners.

With all the talk of the pitch at Cardiff’s SWALEC Stadium turning square, they could well go for both.